


Groundhog Day

by RittaPokie



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: But it's really angsty, Groundhog Day, Other, its angsty with a happy ending, listen you've been warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:22:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26685091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RittaPokie/pseuds/RittaPokie
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 5
Kudos: 56





	Groundhog Day

He’s so tired, he’s seen this upwards of 20 times now, and he can’t stop it - no matter what he does, nothing changes. He’s powerless. The only thing he hasn’t tried is *nothing* because how could he? He just sees it over and over and over and -

Road, road, pass them, set the ambush, there’s too many, they’re too much, it’s too late, brush the hair out of his face, dig the hole, plant the marker, coat - no. He starts taking the coat. He needs it, he needs something, anything. It’s always back on Molly the next morning.

He tries not sleeping, but he can’t. As many nights as he’s stayed up to watch the sunrise and stayed up to watch it fall again. He *can’t* now. The day ends - and then it just... begins again. He’s stuck, he can’t move, he doesn’t know why.

Something’s burning like fire in his throat, like breathing hot smoke, as he watches his own hand move for Molly’s forehead - still warm, but it’s just residual. He isn’t there, again. He slips the coat free and doubles it over his own.

Tears streak dirt marks down his cheeks, his lips touch Molly’s forehead. _I’m sorry I’m so sorry, I can’t protect you_ he hears in his head, _I’ve tried so hard, I don’t know what to do_.

Next day - start again - end again. Again and again and *again*. He worries them but it starts over the next day - he’s going mad, and they see it, but only for one day, and then it’s over.

What a funny thing madness is.

The ambush is set, it always is. Always the same, even with the little differences. He takes Molly’s hand. “You are going to die.” He says. It isn’t the first time. Molly doesn’t think he’s crazy. Molly believes him every time he says it’s happening.

This time, Caleb starts crying. He wraps his arms around Molly. “I have no idea what to do to save you, Mollymauk.” He shakes his head against Molly’s shoulder. “I try every time. I have tried to stand by, to do nothing, but I - I cannot.”

Molly doesn’t say anything - he may believe Caleb, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t an insane situation, and there doesn’t seem to be a solution. “Why is this happening?” Caleb asks him.

“I don’t know.” Molly says. “Unfinished business?”

“There will always be that.”

Molly smiles, “well what is it?”

And Caleb kisses him, he’s just so tired, his face is a delta of tear marks. “I love you, and I have grieved for you dozens of times, I have known that I would never get a chance to tell you - maybe I am not solving this because I do not want to leave.”

“Why?”

“At least I can see you again tomorrow.” Caleb admits, then he looks disgusted with himself. “It is selfish, I am not letting you rest. I love you, and I won’t let you rest.”

And he wakes up - then, right then. His heart is racing, pounding out of his chest, his body drenched in a cold sweat. Thunder rumbles ominously overhead, and he sits up. The sky rolls above him, moving, in a cart. Purple and gold and blue flutter down when he sits up, and his hands touch the soft, well worn fabric. Molly’s coat. It’s morning, it isn’t supposed to be with him, here. He looks around, and his mind adjusts to their direction, their trajectory - out of shady creak, back home, *home*. He looks around. Next to him, Mollymauk, curled up on the wood, his head near where Caleb’s shoulder was, where he lay.

For the first time in his life, he has no fucking clue what day or time it is. His vision is hazy anywhere he looks that isn’t Molly. He’s terrified to look away, but he forces himself to. And then his eyes fall on another familiar form, and another, and another, blue and green and white and black - and a fourth, new, pink. His memories come flooding back, though he’s not sure they’re his in entirety. 

His hand falls to Molly’s shoulder, and the tiefling stirs, and sits up. “Caleb, you’re awake.” Molly sounds surprised. “You... you got pretty fucked up there. Are you okay? You look upset.”

He reaches out and his hand shakes as he touches Molly’s cheek, his palm flattens against it, and he just looks on in wonder. “It’s over.” He whispers. “I’m finally free... you’re here.”

Molly smiles but his brows quirk in confusion. “I’m glad, but I don’t know what that means.”

“You have no idea how long I have been traveling to get to you...”

“Tell me.”

Caleb hesitates, because it sounds too far in his own head, but this is Molly. Molly always believed him. So it spills from him like an overfull tub, like a geyser - everything but the last thing. Molly stays quiet until he’s done, and then just pulls Caleb in without a word, holding him in his arms. Caleb is limp there for a while.

“What ended it?” Molly asks.

Caleb stiffens in the hold, and his face is so mournful when he pulls away that Molly almost wants to cry for him - and with him. “I told the truth.” Caleb says.

“Vague.” Molly says, and the corners of his mouth twitch into a smirk.

And then Caleb kisses him - for real this time, and he knows it won’t be erased in the morning.


End file.
